
SeCOND R6PORT 

TO THE 

Presbytery of Buffalo 

OF A COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE 
CHARGES MADE AGAINST 

THE INDIANS 



OF 

CHESTER NHCU YO*^. 




SECOND REPORT 

TO THE 

PRESBYTERY OF BUFFALO 

OF A 

COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE CHARGES 

MADE AGAINST THE 

INDIANS OF WESTERN NEW YORK. 



PRINTED BY ORDER OF PRESBYTERY OF BUFFALO. 



Unanimously Adopted at the Stated Meeting 

HELD IN FREDONIA, N. Y., APRIL 14-16, 1890. 



BUFFALO, N. Y. : 
THE COURIER COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1890. 



^73 




MAP SHOWING THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS. 



By the U. S. treaty of 1840, which, however, was not carried into effect, the Indians of New York 
were to be removed to Kansas, and were to receive three hundred and twenty acres of land for each 
person. Besides this, $400,000 was pledged them for expenses of the journey and for tools, dwellings 
and stock. 

At present we find in Western New York : 

The Onondaga Reservation, containing 7,300 ^acres, with 450 Indians. 
" Tonawanda " " 7,547 " " 5°° " 

" Tuscarora 6,249 " " 439 " 

" Cattaraugus " 21,680 " " 1,591 

" Allegany " " 30,469 " " 834 " 

The Onondagas, whose alleged vileness has all along been urged as the chief reason for breaking 
up the Reservations, are now excepted from the measure pending before the Legislature for that 
purpose. 

The Allegany Reservation, for whose partition the ''Whipple Bill" has been specially devised, 
includes a strip forty miles long and one mile wide bordering on the Allegany River. Owing to its 
peculiar shape, it contains, according to the report of the U. S. Indian Commissioners, only 10,000 
acres of tillable land. Some 3,500 acres of this choicest land are now settled by whites, and the 
"Whipple Bill" specifies that these lands may be at once appropriated. There remains, therefore, 
under the plan proposed, 6,500 acres of farming land, to be divided among 834 persons. A farm of less 
than eight acres would therefore be the portion of each. 

The allotments on the other Reservations mentioned, including all the land, bad and good, rented 
and unrented, will scarcely furnish fifteen acres to each Indian. The advocates of the "Whipple 
Bill " predict that all rents or annuities 'will cease 'when the tribal relation ends. In such case, the 
majority of these red men will take the shortest road to the poorhouse. Many whites will cheerfully 
acquiesce in such a fate for these Indians, if only their coveted lands can be secured. 



SECOND REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE 

INDIANS OF BUFFALO PRESBYTERY. 



(The First Report was rendered April 9, 1889, and one thousand 
copies were printed.) 



In section 4th, chapter 31st, of our Confession of Faith, we read 
as follows : " Synods and councils are to handle or conclude noth- 
ing but that which is ecclesiastical ; and are not to intermeddle 
with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth, unless by way 
of humble petition in cases extraordinary." 

Remembering this caution, your committee in this report have 
sought harmony by avoiding, as far as possible, the civil and polit- 
ical bearings of the facts presented. We shall not proceed to dis- 
cuss politicians or their measures for the so-called " Relief of the 
Indian." The object of this report is to present what we deem to 
be the truth as to the social, moral and religious condition of the 
red men within our Presbyterial limits. 

It is proper, therefore, for us to say, regarding a previous report, 
printed by order of Presbytery and widely distributed and discussed, 
that this former report was requested from the Buffalo Presbytery 
by the Board of Foreign Missions of our Church, and investigated 
charges against the Indians that had been in print before the public 
for nearly a year. 

This Presbytery has not, in time past, appeared as the assailant of 
any public officer of the State. As requested we have given our 
testimony in rebuttal to statements very prejudicial and, as we 
claim, very untrue to the character of the Indians with whom we 
are acquainted. The present report is by the same committee, and 
is a continuation of the same subject, with such further information 
as we have been able to secure. Meanwhile there have been several 



6 



hew elements entering into the problem, which have kept it before 
the public mind, and which may be stated without comment. 

A large proportion of the choicest land on the reservations of 
Western New York is occupied or leased by white men, such leases 
having been executed by the tribal authorities, and being in some 
cases almost equivalent to a deed or a title in fee. 

For instance, on the land belonging to the Senecas we find located 
the villages of A'andalia, Carrollton, Great Valley, Salamanca, West 
Salamanca and Red House, besides other tracts leased to the rail- 
roads crossing the reservations. These are settlements of white 
people who do not expect or intend to move away. They antici- 
pate a time in the near future when these lands will be unqualifiedly 
theirs. They mean to do everything allowable to gain this pos- 
session. It is true that these white settlers occupied these lands 
without any warrant or any invitation from the owners, who did 
not resist but are said to have encouraged the invasion. The 
building of the Erie Railroad, and the subsequent junction therewith 
of the Western New York and Pennsylvania on the reservation at 
Salamanca, are said by these residents to have justified their occupa- 
tion, which, as one of them admits, would " otherwise have been 
inexcusable." More than two square miles of territory are now 
solidly covered with houses and streets, with gas, water and all 
modern conveniences in Salamanca alpne. As it was feared that 
these improvements might be imperilled by some threatened eject- 
ment from the tribal authorities, an Act of Congress was secured 
in 1875 legalizing the leases until the year 1892. It will be seen, 
therefore, that these leases, now become of many times the original 
value, will soon expire. For the next two years, therefore, we may 
expect the utmost activity concerning Indian affairs on these reser- 
vations. Vast amounts of such property are involved in the legis- 
lation now pending at Albany, and the relief spoken of is quite as 
really for white men as for red men. 

If we are silent, therefore, the discussion will be vigorous else- 
where, as to the civilization which the Indian represents, and as to 
the justification for taking and holding from him his lands. 

It should be stated yet further, in explaining the present situation, 
that the bill now before our Legislature, introduced by Mr. Whipple 
of Salamanca, and providing for the division of land in severalty, 



7 



is drawn with special reference to securing at once for white men 
these lands just mentioned. They are excepted from the provision 
that no Indian can alienate his land for thirty years. It is provided 
under section twelve of the Whipple Bill that all these lands may 
be sold to white people whenever the Seneca Nation can legally sell 
the same, and may choose to do so. 

The effect of dividing the land in severalty and of breaking up 
the reservation system will be to abolish the tribe as such, and to 
make the men citizens. After this they are forbidden by the bill 
to act in a tribal capacity. " It shall be a misdemeanor for them 
to continue any custom or organization in the name of tribal custom, 
usage or government." 

The bearing of this clause is thus described, over his own signa- 
ture, by one of the friends of the measure : " Let us briefly 
consider," he says, "what will be the effect on our leaseholders 
upon the Allegany Reservation. Suppose there is no longer a 
Seneca Nation of Indians. Then of course there is no Council to 
renew our leases, or to receive any annual rents ; they having been 
abolished, wiped out by Act of Congress. Now this same authority 
by a legislative act having abolished, dissolved the Nation and its 
Council, it would be incumbent on them to provide for our relief. 
The Indians and their friends would also demand that something 
be done. They could not take our lands and allot them among the 
tribe. They could no longer be leased. * * * * We are as 
secure in our titles as are the people of Dayton or any other town 
to theirs." . 

Acting on such assurances as these the leaseholders at Salamanca, 
numbering about one hundred persons, have almost unanimously 
rejected the recent proposal of the Indians to renew the lease for 
ninety-nine years. It is confidently hoped by these settlers to own 
the land in fee at no distant day. Such is the interesting and 
critical state of affairs at the present date. 

Your committee may also be pardoned for mentioning with 
gratitude the reinforcement to the views previously announced by 
us, derived from Mr. John Habberton, a man of the highest personal 
character, and of no mean literary accomplishments, who belongs 
to the editorial staff of the New York Herald. In January last, 
he made a visit to each of the eight reservations in our State with 



8 



a view of ascertaining the truth about the life prevailing there. 
His report, covering two full pages of the Herald for February 2d, 
substantiates all that we have asserted in favor of our Indians. 
This publication was an entire surprise to us all, inasmuch as the 
gifted writer was unacquainted with any one of us, and came here 
without the knowledge or suggestion of any one in our Presbytery. 
He writes as follows of his investigation : " I went into the Indian 
country only to write a descriptive sketch, but when I detected the 
undercurrent of swindle, and studied out the means by which 
public opinion was being influenced, I thought it proper to change 
my method, and to leave out many picturesque features in order to 
make room for justice and indignation." 

The article by Mr. Habberton has in its turn been extensively 
noticed by the Press, and has aided, like the Whipple Bill, in draw- 
ing renewed attention to the Indians of New York State. 

First, then, let us consider the Indians in their dwellings. Do 
the houses of these people differ materially from those of the whites 
who live along the borders of the reservations ? The statement 
was made last fall, by one who presented the worst side of this 
question before our Presbytery, that " the majority of these Indians 
live in one-room huts." The sentence was intended as a crushing 
summary of their debasement. It is not necessarily so, however. 

In The Nineteenth Century for July, 1884, we read as to Scot- 
land : " While a few Scotchman have castles and palaces, more 
than one-third of all Scottish families live in one room each, and 
more than two-thirds in not more than two rooms each." So the 
frontier cabins of our pioneer settlers at the West resembled in their 
proportions the humbler dwellings now to be seen on these reserva- 
tions near us. The red man yet lingers in a transition state akin 
to theirs. But this is not of necessity a mark of barbarism. The 
worst cottages of these men are better than the tenement flats in 
many a city of our land. Seventy-eight families out of every one 
hundred in Glasgow live in one room. 

The charge that a majority of the Indians " dwell in one-room 
huts and have done nothing whatever to build up the institution on 
which the temple of human liberty must find its foundations," is, 
however, so very wide of the truth, that much care and time have 
been taken to secure the facts concerning this matter. 



9 



On the Allegany Reservation there are about two hundred and 
forty houses. Most of them are shingled. Between seventy-five 
and one hundred of them are framed and clapboarded, or sheathed 
with planks battened and cased, and papered on the inside. One 
hundred and twenty^five of these houses contain three or more 
rooms. They resemble closely the houses found along the "runs" 
or streams near the reservation and inhabited by whites. The 
smaller dwellings with one or two rooms are occupied mostly by 
young people just beginning life together, or by aged people- 
There are twenty one-room houses, generally with a chamber in the 
loft overhead. These are built commonly of rough hemlock boards, 
and shingled. There are twelve log-houses, many of which are 
better than some framed houses, as the logs are squared and jointed 
at the corners, with framed windows and doors. 

Of the dwellings mentioned, at least fifteen are well carpeted, 
and nine are furnished with cabinet organs, and there are ninety 
sewing machines in use by the Indian women on the reservation. 

There is a single one-room shanty occupied by an aged widow- 
A score or two of old log-houses are no longer used as dwellings. 

On the Tonawanda Reservation there are nearly four hundred 
houses. Twelve of them have but one room each. The number 
built of logs is not given, but is thought to be less than on the 
Tuscarora, where there are thirty. Seven cabinet organs are 
reported, and twelve top carriages with good horses. Eleven 
houses are carpeted, and ten newspapers are taken. 

One shanty containing one room, is all that the census-taker 
reports. 

The Tuscarora Reservation is said to have seventy-five framed 
houses, and thirty of logs. Many of these log-houses are so com- 
fortably built that the owners have preserved them and have built 
on to them frame additions covered with clapboards. There are 
about twenty small framed houses, mostly with one room only, and 
usually with a sleeping-place, reached by stair or ladder, in the room 
overhead. These cottages are occupied by old people, widows, or 
young married persons. Large families or those with grown-up 
children do not occupy such dwellings, and as a rule they are clap- 
boarded and very neat in appearance. Twenty-five of the whole 
number of houses have carpets, and ten of them contain cabinet 



IO 



organs. There are many fine large farm-houses, not distinguishable 
from those of a prosperous white farmer. To offset these we find 
a single one-roomed shanty. The so-called log-houses are nearly 
all block-houses, substantially built of squared timbers, and not dis- 
reputable dwellings. Fifty families are equipped with sewing- 
machines. 

Special care and expense have been taken in the census of dwell- 
ings on the Cattaraugus Reservation, as here the facts have been 
most in dispute. Three independent estimates have been made, 
which are averaged in this report. There are between two hundred 
and fifty and three hundred houses occupied as dwellings. Of these 
seven are shanties, though one of these has three rooms. Ten are 
common log-houses rudely constructed. Thirty-five are block- 
houses, well-built of squared logs nicely matched. Between forty 
and fifty have but one room below, though perhaps half of these 
have sleeping quarters in the attic overhead. Many of the houses 
have at least one room carpeted. Nine cabinet organs and about 
fifty sewing-machines were seen in the furniture of these houses. 

Out of a total, therefore, of about eleven hundred dwellings on 
these four reservations, we find less than a dozen shanties, and less 
than a hundred houses with one room only. Anyone, therefore, 
who asserts that " these Indians live for the most part in one-room 
huts," must have been sadly misinformed. 

But it is alleged that whatever be the present home-life of these 
people, they have made no progress, or at best but little improve- 
ment, for the last fifty years. Listen, therefore, to a brief extract 
from an address made by the Rev. William Hall, still a missionary 
on these reservations, and familiar with their condition since 1826. 
He is speaking of his fifty years experience among them, and be- 
gins with their condition when he first knew them : " The most of 
your people," he says, " then lived in wigwams constructed of bark 
or poles, with earth floors ; with no chimney except a large hole in 
the top for the escape of smoke from fire on the floor in the center 
of the room. Around this fire-place, on each side of the room, 
were rude benches covered with the skins of animals, answering 
the triple purpose of beds, chairs and tables. The people were 
destitute of table furniture, and had no cooking utensils except a 
kettle and vessels made of bark. An axe, a hoe and a hatchet 



1 1 

were their complete outfit for farming. The hoe weighed from six 
to ten pounds, and answered the double purpose, in* the hands of 
women only, of plow and hoe. Then it was called ' the squaw hoe.' 
All domestic animals were rare, except such as could survive with- 
out care. As late as 1834, when I began my life-work as mission- 
ary to the New York Indians (a thankless task), the wigwams had, 
in most cases, been exchanged for the hut, but this advanced gen- 
eration could now find little comfort in that single room. At that 
date many of the people possessed neat cattle and swine, as well as 
ponies and dogs, but as a rule pigs and puppies were far more nu- 
merous, and the majority of single-room huts answered the purpose 
of parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, bed-room and nur- 
sery for the people, and of kennel and pig-pen for puppies and 
pigs. From such a beginning you have ascended by slow but sure 
progress, through the power of the truth, persistently brought to 
bear upon you by Christian men and women, — not by infidels, not 
by unbelievers, — but by those who had faith in the power of the 
gospel to elevate the degraded. I say by this power you have been 
brought up to what you are — a people better prepared, as a rule, to 
take your places as citizens of the United States, than those who 
come from some of the civilized countries on the other side of the 
great waters. Instead of the axe, the hoe and the hatchet, as your 
only implements of husbandry, you have not only the plow, the 
drag and the cultivator, but the mower, the reaper, the thresher, 
the sewing-machine, and other labor-saving machines. Wagons, 
buggies and sleighs are common among you. Even pleasure car- 
riages, drawn by fat, fleet and blooded horses, beautifully caparisoned 
with silver-tipped harness, are sometimes met with. The dirty blanket 
and slouched hat formerly worn by the women, have been displaced 
by the fashionable costumes of civilized life. And now you are 
able to read those two great educators, the Bible and the newspa- 
per. These have rendered you sufficiently intelligent to take care 
of your personal interests in the presence of scheming and dishon- 
est men. All this, and more, accomplished in fifty years ! And yet 
in our work we are everywhere met by the objection, ' The Indians 
can never be civilized,' as if it has not already been accomplished ! '* 
This noble address was given before a large concourse of Senecas 
and five hundred whites, assembled in national convention in the 



12 

open air, in 1878. It was printed in the Cattaraugus Republican and 
widely distributed. Not one of its assertions was ever disputed. 
Mr. Hall now adds : " After a lapse of twelve years, I stand by my 
then expressed opinion, and intensify it. The progress made by the 
Senecas in Christianity, morals and civilization, is marvelous. It is 
the Lord's doing, not ours." 

We have quoted at length from the well-considered views of this 
patriarch in mission-work, in order to offset the cruel imputation of 
the following paragraph from one who endeavors to use him as a 
witness against the people to whose welfare he has devoted his life. 
The sentence occurs in a plea against the Indians, delivered before 
this Presbytery September 10, 1889 : 

" I once asked the Rev. Mr. Hall, for more than fifty years a zeal- 
ous missionary among the Senecas, what evidences of progress had 
manifested themselves in that time. He answered that when he 
came among them, the cattle, swine and fowls lived in the same 
room with them, and that they did not do that now. That change 
is undoubtedly to the advantage of the Indian, and it may not be 
to the disadvantage of the hogs and hens, but it is insisted that, 
surrounded as these people are, this is not moving rapidly enough 
toward civilization, when there is no necessity, under a wiser policy, 
of going so slow." Does this flippant treatment of the veteran 
missionary give a fair impression of what he must have said ? 

Let us now pass to the question of morals among these Indians. 
As more than fifteen hundred of the Senecas reside in Erie County, 
the records of our courts are available for evidence concerning their 
relation to laws and penalties. 

To begin with, it appeared on careful inquiry last November, 
that not a single Indian was in any asylum, poorhouse or jail within 
our limits. Since then there has been a case of supposed murder 
on the Tuscarora Reservation. The criminal has not yet been 
identified, however, and the event called out the remark from the 
press that capital crimes were rare among the Indians. The cor- 
oner's jury ultimately decided that no proof of murder existed, and 
the person accused of the same was therefore discharged, and is no 
longer suspected of the crime. 

Police Justice Thomas S. King, of this city, before whom nine- 
tenths of the cases for disorderly conduct are brought, authorizes 



13 



us to say, that during his long official term no Indian has been 
brought before him on any graver charge than assault and battery ; 
and these cases were very infrequent, not more than two or three in 
any year. The white man's fire-water was the inciting cause. In- 
asmuch as the Indians resort to Buffalo in considerable numbers on 
the Fourth of July, and other festive days, this testimony is of 
direct importance. 

District Attorney G. T. Quinby, who has been in office for four 
years, states that only two Indians have been prosecuted by him 
during his official term. Their trouble grew out of a quarrel as to 
boundary fences, and in view of the fact that their farms or tracts 
are never surveyed, and that there are no monuments to establish 
boundary lines, such disputes might not be of uncommon occur- 
rence. They are, however, rare. The penalty imposed by the 
court was merely a slight fine, as the alleged assault was the using 
an improper degree of force in defending their lands from trespass. 

The Buffalo Superintendent of Poor states to us that there has 
not been an Indian inmate of the poorhouse for the last six years, 
beyond which time his official experience does not extend. No 
Indians have applied to him for relief, although failure of crops and 
epidemics have occasionally reduced the Senecas to sore extremity. 
Nor have any Indians been sent by the Poor Department to any 
hospital or other eleemosynary institution. 

Dishonesty in business transactions is charged by some and de- 
nied by others, as a prominent trait of character displayed by these 
people. The Rev. Mr. Hall, already quoted, says in response to 
a question about their payment of debts : " As to their comparative 
honesty, I have never encountered so much of a disposition among 
them to get into debt, with no intention to pay, as I have among 
white people. A magnanimous merchant, by the name of Rob. Car- 
son, who has had extensive dealings with them, told me that, "if 
you take away all laws for the collection of debts from white men, 
as has been done in regard to Indians, I would sooner give indis- 
criminate credit to Indians than to whites." Voluminous evidence 
on both sides of this question is found in the testimony taken a year 
ago by the Legislative Committee. In regard to their examina- 
tions, however, one is reminded of the dictum of Aristotle, who 
long ago remarked that " the first step in investigation is to ask the 



14 

right questions." Most of the questions put by counsel for this 
committee are framed so as to encourage replies unfavorable to the 
good name of the red men. 

Your stated committee on the Senecas contains three members 
who have had financial dealings in a business way with the Indians. 
Two of them incline to a conclusion that these men need to be 
forced to pay their obligations. The other member of our com- 
mittee has found the red man as honorable as the whites in such 
matters. 

The following testimony concerning the honesty of our Indians 
is offered by the Hon. W. F. Wheeler, a well-known member of the 
Legislature of this State and an elder of the church at Portville, 
Cattaraugus County. He says : 

"In 1834, I began running lumber in rafts on the Allegany river 
to Pittsburg and Cincinnati, and continued in this business for more 
than forty years. During all that time, every spring, we employed 
Indians on the rafts, as hands at the oar and in the responsible 
position of pilots, having entire charge of large and valuable rafts 
of lumber. I had at first a strong prejudice against them, but soon 
lost this feeling, and can now say that I never knew an Indian to 
do a dishonest act. 

" In the swift water of the Allegany our rafts had to be tied up at 
night, and any movable property on board was liable to be stolen 
by thieves from the shore, except when passing through the Allegany 
Reservation. There, for forty miles, everything was safe. 

" We employed hundreds of men in connection with this rafting 
business, and always found the Indians honest. They had not the 
physical courage of the white man in time of danger, but they had 
more than the white man's honesty. On one occasion, an Indian 
pilot hired by my agent, Mr. Warren, had received some money 
from him without my knowledge. When I paid him the full amount 
of his wages, sixty dollars, he handed me back a twenty-dollar bill, 
saying, 'Warren, he pay me twenty dollar.' 

" At another time, two Indian women came to our house, having 
walked at least fifteen miles through the cold and snow, bringing a 
quantity of baskets. The elder woman could speak no English ; 
the younger told us that the husband of her companion had died, 
leaving a debt of two dollars at our store. His widow had now 



i5 



come to pay this debt in baskets of her own making. After search 
at the store, we found a debt of the amount which she had men- 
tioned, but it had been forgotten and would never have been 
claimed. 

" I found some of the Indians to be conscientious Christians, and 
none of them to be dishonest. They always appreciated kind 
treatment." 

Such is the evidence of one familiar with the Senecas for half a 
century. 

The chief complaint which is brought against the morals of these 
people concerns the vice of unchastity. Surely it is natural that 
this should be their weakest virtue. Chastity among women is the 
consummate flower of Christian civilization, and is the last virtue to 
be rescued out of the defilements of paganism. No statement of our 
former report has been so fiercely assailed as the one that the pagan 
Indians had a form of wedlock as real to them under their cere- 
mony as if it were Christian marriage. It is claimed, on the other 
hand, that there is " no such thing as wedlock among the pagans, 
in the sense in which we understand it." If by this denial is meant 
that pagan Indians or even Christian Indians have less exalted ideas 
of *the purity of the married estate, and lack the refined and en- 
nobling views which our best white people entertain as to the 
sacredness of marriage, this is readily conceded. But this is not 
what the objector means. He asserts that something like promis- 
cuous concubinage prevails among them ; that virtuous unmarried 
women are practically unknown; that the people form "miscel- 
laneous associations without binding force, taken up or laid down 
at the whim or caprice of the parties ; " that what we call the family 
does not exist as an institution among them, and that " marriage 
ceremonies are the exception rather than the rule." As a whole, it 
is charged that they have no comprehension of the sacred character 
of the family relation. 

Now concerning the Christian Indians and their families, who 
compose at least forty-five per cent, of the whole, this opprobrium 
is to be denied altogether. Most of them are living reputable 
Christian lives. The ratio of divorces, actual or practical, among 
them is less than among the whites. Among the pagans it is usual 



i6 

at their council gatherings to appoint a speaker to discourse on 
faithfulness to the bonds of marriage. 

Listen again to Mr. Hall, out of his fifty-five years of intimate 
acquaintance with these facts : 

" I unhesitatingly say that the morality of the Indians on this 
reservation (the Allegany) is superior to an equal number of their 
white neighbors. The State allows marriage in so many ways as to 
render it difficult for us to know who are married. Some are married 
by ministers, some by justices, some by peace-makers (Seneca civil 
officers) and some in the Quaker form; others, by simply living 
together as husband and wife ; rearing families, providing for and 
loving each other and their children. All these forms have been 
recognized by the courts of our State as legal. We know that 
families (i. c. family relations) are as numerous with the Indians as 
with an equal number of their white neighbors, and that there seems 
to be the same affection, or at least equal affection in their families, 
as with whites. There is less licentiousness coming to the surface 
now than twelve years ago." 

Another competent witness, after more than ten years experience 
among these people, gives the following picture of the darkest side 
of this question. 

" The more ignorant and vicious of the Indians simply take a 
woman without ceremony and live with her ; never as a mistress, 
however, but as for the time being a real wife. If jealousy arises, 
the man will desert her, and then after awhile will find another 
woman and will live with her as a wife, and while thus dwelling 
together he will introduce her as his wife. The former wife then 
considers herself free from such husband and will marry again. 
Such cases are too frequent, but not as much so as reported or 
charged. Each party in such a case will tell you that there was 
legal excuse for going from each other ; that having no money and 
no influence, they cannot afford to get a divorce from the courts ; 
that, furthermore, they are not compelled to do so by their old 
customs." 

Through all this unjustifiable conduct, however, there is no such 
thing as indiscriminate intercourse, nor does such a horrid situation 
exist anywhere on these reservations. It is commonly held among 
these people, that if a man talks to a woman not his wife, or walks 



*7 



along the street in her company, he is a bad husband, and the same 
condemnation is true likewise of the woman. 

There is little "courting" preliminary to marriage as among 
whites. Men do not visit the homes of the girls for weeks or 
months as " engaged " or betrothed. In many cases they at once 
take a woman as wife and live with her as such. 

But in all this there is no such libertinism as is found among 
whites, nor the keeping of one woman as wife with others held as 
mistresses. Quite a number of Indian girls are led into vice by 
white men who come on the reservation with whisky for that pur- 
pose. This is the chief way by which Indian virtue is overborne, 
and the result should be charged against the morals of the invaders 
rather than of their victims. Some of the white youth in special 
locations near the reservations could be designated as having a vile 
pre-eminence in this dastardly business. Perhaps, however, it is not 
wise to specify them in this report. 

Mr. Wm. H. Sage of Lewiston makes affidavit that he has known 
the Tuscaroras for more than fifty years, has taught for more than 
ten years among them, and, as he says, " has ever found them better 
than a majority of the white people surrounding them. Instead of 
contaminating the whites they are lowered by the mingling of the 
whites with them. They have more respect for the Sabbath and it 
is hard to make them disregard it.'' 

Another illustration of the nobler side of Indian character comes 
to us from the Cornplanter Reservation. Trouble occurred there 
between members of the church, and between the elders. A ser- 
vice of prayer was held concerning it, and lasting four hours. 
They prayed for one another, and freely forgave each other. One 
of them went to the house of a member of the church kept at 
home by sickness, and asked forgiveness and shook hands in token 
of peace. This sick woman was white, and the one who visited 
her was an Indian, who said that he never had intended to hurt her 
feelings, but if he had he was willing to ask her forgiveness. So 
kneeling down he prayed for his white sister. 

" Indians," concludes this narrator, "are better than many who 
boast of their civilization and Christianity." 

Another letter, in describing the home-life on the reservations, 
says : "In nearly all the houses you will find some cheap prints or 



i8 



paintings on the walls. Many of the houses are tastefully papered, 
and the floors, where not carpeted, are kept clean and white. All 
people sit at tables for meals; use knives and forks, and have the 
usual table furniture found in farmers' houses, including table-cloth 
and cover. Their beds are generally covered with a nicely-worked 
quilt, and the bed-clothing is clean and the sheets are white. I 
have never yet seen an Indian home more frightfully filthy than 
one among the whites with which I was acquainted years ago. In- 
deed, I judge that the Indians are more clean and more tasteful in 
home-life than the ordinary foreigner. The Indian is not a brute, 
is not licentious or beastly, but is taught to restrain himself and to 
be a man. His food, clothing and environment are as pure, whole- 
some and healthful as the great majority of our foreign population 
can claim. Of course I see the sin, the remnants of savage life and 
customs, but no more than I see them in the streets of these white 
villages." 

The distinctively religious work on these reservations, so far as 
we carry it on, pertains to six churches, viz.: at Tuscarora, Tona- 
wanda, Jemisontown, Old Town, Cornplanter, and Cattaraugus. 
Altogether they include at the present time 294 communicants. 
Forty-five new members have been added during the year. Their 
contributions in money and in work amount to $1,408 for the 
twelve months ending March 30th. Twenty-four different services 
have been held each week among these people. Thirteen of these 
religious meetings have been in charge of the Indians themselves, 
who always conduct them in the absence of the missionaries. At 
a recent meeting in Onoville, near Old Town, on the Allegany 
Reservation, a member of a white Methodist Church near by was 
present, and spoke as follows, in view of remarks by the leader of 
the meeting as to visitors who came to hear and not to help in the 
services : 

" The Indians seem to me more advanced in religious matters 
than the white people surrounding the reservation. Instead of the 
whites helping the Indians in their meetings, white people are 
benefited spiritually by attending these meetings to listen." 

Very encouraging reports of religious progress come to us from 
the Cattaraugus Reservation. By his five services each Sunday the 
Rev. Mr. Runciman has reached two hundred and forty persons 



*9 

each week. There has been a net gain of twenty-six in church 
members, and an attendance of one hundred and eighty at Sunday- 
school. A remarkable feature of the school-work has been the reci- 
tation by fifty-six of the scholars of the entire shorter catechism. 
For reciting this perfectly, from beginning to end, these fifty-six 
children have received from our Board of Publication the promised 
reward of a new Bible each. This is the largest number of such 
prizes thus far presented to any one school in the Presbyterian 
Church. Much credit is due to Mr. and Mrs. Van Valkenburg, 
of the Thomas Orphan Asylum, for their aid in this thorough work. 
Many of these Indian children can recite the entire catechism, with- 
out prompting by a single question. 

A Chautauqua Circle, numbering fourteen Indians, meets weekly 
for instruction with the missionary, who is also preparing a series 
of lectures on the Life of Christ, to be illustrated by a magic-lan- 
tern, with which the mission has been presented. Eighty volumes 
for their library have also been received as a gift from the church 
at Springville. Mr. Runciman says in his report for the year, " Our 
work was never more encouraging than now." Rev. Mr. McMas- 
ters writes of the work, as he observes it on the Tonawanda Res- 
ervation: " Our prayer-meetings are well attended, and the interest 
good. There is a growth of interest in things that are elevating 
and Christian." 

In the summary of the Cattaraugus church, after the report of 
eighty-six members, the words are added, " These members are in 
good standing." Rev. Mr. Trippe writes: "When I went to the 
reservation in 1881, I became greatly discouraged by what I saw 
and heard, and perhaps to some of my brother ministers I painted 
the Indians as they then appeared to me on a superficial acquaint- 
ance. But an experience 6f nine years, not on one reservation, but 
on four of them, has worked a change in my views. I am not con- 
stantly with those whose lives are rilled with petty gossip. I see 
Indian life from the inside, not through white man's eyes. The 
red men open their hearts to me, as never before. I see their true 
nature, and not as it appears to many white men outside. The 
Indian is peculiar in this. He shuts himself up, and appears stupid 
and mean to one with whom he is not entirely acquainted. I can 
tell you to go to certain parties on the reservations, and to repre- 



20 



sent yourself as allied to Indian-haters, and you can get any kind 
of information which you seek against them ; but not knowing 
these men and their peculiar interests and selfishness, you could not 
sift the true from the false. There are Indians who seem to hate 
their own race, and will do what they can to malign it. Not until 
I learned the real character of such men, did I begin to see that all 
Indians were not bad, and that these gossipy fellows were the most 
contemptible of all. I have seen the darkest side of reservation- 
life. It is not from sentimentalism, but from a strong sense of jus- 
tice, that I plead for these men, as far better than their slanderers 
declare. The reservations are by no means a heaven, but they are 
far from being the hell which many represent." 

Mr. Trippe adds : " It is not the missionary's own work which 
tells of progress, so much as the work of his people. I consider 
one good day's work done for Christ by an Indian of far greater 
importance to the cause than two done by the missionary. It marks 
progress, and should be emphasized. All of the services in the 
Indian churches under my charge are sustained, three-fourths of 
the time through the year, by the Indians themselves. They sus- 
tain their own sewing societies, Sunday-schools, temperance and 
prayer-meetings. They keep their church buildings in repair, pay 
all their congregational expenses, and settle all their difficulties ; 
making peace, and working for the salvation of their race. They 
preach and teach, plan their Christian work, are zealous, consistent 
and faithful. Out of eighteen religious services held each week 
during the whole year, the Indians themselves sustain at least thir- 
teen. This is certainly an evidence of Christian progress, and a 
matter for sincere congratulation." 

Among the moral and religious forces to be considered, is the 
Iroquois Temperance League. It has been organized and active 
for more than sixty years, but of late has been specially vigorous, 
and now includes more than six hundred members. Last October, 
at Jemisontown, it met, with bands of music and speakers, both 
Indian and white, in a continuous session for six or seven hours, 
and in services occupying nearly a week. The house was packed 
with eager listeners, who were also to be seen crowding around every 
window and door outside the building. 

Despite the constitutional temptation of the red man to drink 



rum, it appears from the testimony of those best informed that this 
vice is, to say the the least, no more prevalent than formerly. Mr. 
Habberton is doubtless right in his conclusion that " Total abstain- 
ers are quite as numerous, proportionately, among the Six Nations 
of New York as among the white population of the State." 

In closing, it seems proper to state a fact concerning the authority 
on- which the original " charges " were affirmed to rest. In the ad- 
dress before our Presbytery last October, we were told by the author 
of these charges, that they were copied almost verbatim from the 
language of Bishop F. D. Huntington of Syracuse. Having 
learned that others who heard the Bishop's words had understood 
him to speak only of the Indians near Syracuse, we addressed him 
on the subject. This is his reply, under date of October 31, 1889 : 

" You seem to be quite correct in your impression of what I have 
said in the matter of your inquiry. I can have expressed no opin- 
ion, and alleged nothing as fact, respecting the moral or religious 
condition of the Indians on any other reservation, except that of 
the Onondagas, for I have seen nothing, and know nothing of any 
other." 

The honored Bishop cannot be quoted, therefore, as the indorser 
of any damaging tale concerning the red men within the borders of 
our Presbytery. He has never said, nor agreed, that the " eight 
reservations of our State are nests of uncontrolled vice." He adds 
that, " as reforms are not apt to be achieved without over-state- 
ment, and some honest exaggeration, and as the author of these 
exaggerations meant to benefit the Indian and not himself, the 
cause of Christian truth and right will not suffer if the public con- 
troversy on the subject should subside." 

We think it will subside, now that these charges are disproved, 
although not one of them has been withdrawn, but all were stoutly 
reaffirmed before our Presbytery by their author, September 10, 
1889. 

We make room for one other letter from a distinguished Elder of 
the Presbyterian Church, and a noted Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. He replies to our inquiry whether the Indi- 
ans can be forced to accept the division of their lands against their 
will. He writes under date of November 29th last, from Wash- 
ington, D. C: "I had supposed that the New York Indians have 



still a tribal existence, and that their lands belong to them as a 
tribe, or tribes. If this be true, I cannot see that the State of New 
York has power to allot a portion of the tribal lands to an individ- 
ual Indian, without, or in opposition to, the consent of the tribe. 

" Very truly yours, (Sd.) William Strong." 

If such be the ruling of the Supreme Court, the passage of any 
bill by our Legislature, providing for a division of these lands in 
severalty, cannot be enforced without the consent of each tribe 
whose property is involved. Something besides the Ogden Land 
Company stands, therefore, in the way of seizing and appropriating 
these great estates. 

If the consent of the Indian is needed before any of his lands 
can be divided, it is surely a foolish policy of persuasion which be- 
gins by publishing the most offensive charges against his good 
name. He will resent all interference from those detractors, and 
will set himself against their schemes. 

Meanwhile, it remains the privilege of our Presbytery to earn 
the grateful affection of these Indians, by our friendship, our vin- 
dication of their character, and our watchful care. 

Respectfully submitted. 

William S. HubbELL. 
Sidney S. Adams. 
Charles G. Talcott. 

Buffalo, April 14, 1S90. 



